Baby Food for Bean

We had been holding off on getting Bean going on solids until her last (6 month) doctor appointment because: a. it’s incredibly difficult to get her to even sit still for a bottle let alone a spoon full of goop, & b. she had some bodily issues (hard poopy) after trying rice cereal. After some reassurance and advice from the doctor (prune juice to keep her “regular”) we decided we had better jump the next baby hurdle.

I had seen many articles on making your own baby food and each said how it was so easy and how much cheaper it was than buying it in stores. I decided that since we spend an arm and a leg on formula, I can take a little more time and effort and make the food myself to save some moolah.

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Bean’s doctor recommended starting with vegetables, 1 at a time waiting about 3 days in between in case of allergic reaction, and then working through fruits. I decided to go with sweet potatoes first. To prepare the food all I did was…

1. Peel and chop the sweet potato, boil on stove top with just enough water to cover them for about 15 minutes, puree with immersion blender with liquid remaining in pot.

2. Divide out portions in ice cube trays, cover with saran wrap, freeze.

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One sweet potato (which set me back about $1) made about 16 servings which lasts a little over a week. FOR $1!

As far as tools to process the food goes, don’t waste your money on a baby bullet or other highly touted baby food making machine. I have a regular magic bullet and didn’t even use that because my immersion blender was so much quicker and easier. The one thing that I may invest in is something to steam the vegetables. “They” say that some of the nutrients are lost by boiling versus steaming. Moral of the story is, I HIGHLY recommend making your own baby food. It’s actually kind of fun 🙂

By the way, Brynn HATED the prune juice haha The faces she made were just hilarious, I’ll have to post the video from it sometime. We learned to mix it in with her formula to mask the flavor.

This article from Rust & Sunshine Blog does a very good job at explaining the entire process.